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I've been in the habit of loading the brush on the soap for 15 to 20 seconds, then building the lather on the face. I think I'll change it up a bit: I'm going to follow Murray's practice of building his lather on the soap. This means the time spent will be determined by my subjective satisfaction with the lather that is made on the soap. Even though I'm currently on the 80th shave in a row with a shaving cream (XPEC) with about 20 - 30 to go before I move to the next product (at least). If it's a soap I'm going to try it this way just to see what happens, if anything. I actually thought of it before today's shave, and instead of XPEC I used the new Salter Solid shaving soap with tallow. It seemed to work well, but it's back to the cream now until the big pot runs out. Here's what I think will happen --- some soaps will perform differently than other soaps.

I've been in the habit of loading the brush on the soap for 15 to 20 seconds, then building the lather on the face. I think I'll change it up a bit: I'm going to follow Murray's practice of building his lather on the soap. This means the time spent will be determined by my subjective satisfaction with the lather that is made on the soap. Even though I'm currently on the 80th shave in a row with a shaving cream (XPEC) with about 20 - 30 to go before I move to the next product (at least). If it's a soap I'm going to try it this way just to see what happens, if anything. I actually thought of it before today's shave, and instead of XPEC I used the new Salter Solid shaving soap with tallow. It seemed to work well, but it's back to the cream now until the big pot runs out. Here's what I think will happen --- some soaps will perform differently than other soaps.

I think you're on to something there, Gary!

Lather on the cake has worked well for me with badger, boar, and synthetic brushes. Interestingly, when I lathered in a separate bowl, I got my best results using badger. (I didn't have any synthetics then.) Lathering on top of the cake of soap has worked best for me with boar (badger and synthetics taken into consideration for the comparison). The brush that gives me the best results of all of my brushes for on-cake lathering is the humble Semogue 1305. This brush and the 830 have a special grade of boar, superior to and unlike any other in my experience.

Gary, I have been lathering “on the soap” for a long time. I find it the best way to build the lather until I’m satisfied with the thickness, texture, slickness, etc. This method uses more product but I don’t care. Soap is cheap. I have a couple of large,ceramic bowls I use to build lather. For softer soaps I remove them from their original containers and press them into the bowl so I can lather on top. For hard pucks I grate or chop with a chef’s knife and press into the bowl. In all cases, I leave the soap uncovered and use it up fairly quickly. It may dry a bit over time but generally does not lose scent. Brush choice does not seem to matter much. I have used them all with success.

... The brush that gives me the best results of all of my brushes for on-cake lathering is the humble Semogue 1305. This brush and the 830 have a special grade of boar, superior to and unlike any other in my experience.

I have the exact same experieince with my very old, cracked and chipped 1305. It's so good with soaps.

I only face lather. When I use soap, which is very infrequently, I find I have the best results when I rub the cake directly on my face the same way as I use a soap stick. I’ve struggled to make good lather by loading my brush from the cake or by building lather on the cake, but rubbing the cake directly on my face works every time.

In a few days I'll be back to a soap, following the running out of my current brushless shaving lotion cream Ambrosia. Going to give it a go with the increase of time spent loading on the soap. Still haven't decided which soap its going to be.

... The brush that gives me the best results of all of my brushes for on-cake lathering is the humble Semogue 1305. This brush and the 830 have a special grade of boar, superior to and unlike any other in my experience.

I have the exact same experieince with my very old, cracked and chipped 1305. It's so good with soaps.

X3 for the Semogue 1305. Even though mine has seen only a month of use, and looks rather tatty and beaten, it's quickly become my go-to brush. I can use it for bowl or face lathering, or a combination of the two, as I mentioned in my review of Barber Shop Tallow Soap.

I lathered on the puck for years. That is the way my father and grandfather lathered. I believe this is the reason I have no trouble creating a good lather with Williams. In the past few years, I have gotten away lathering on the puck-except for Williams, as I bowl lather now. Will revisit this in tomorrow's shave, always had great lather lathering on puck!

I've always kind of done this hybrid method where I build up initially on the puck/cake of soap, then take the brush to my face. I got to this point as I focused on getting WMF lather right, and this is where I landed.

This morning I ended up lathering twice. First with a brush that once was my best boar, the Semogue 2000. I loaded it on the soap for about 30 seconds, and it did next to nothing despite adding water and loading more soap. I was disappointed because it failed. I'm not saying it wasn't due to operator error, because that is common with me. However, I did have enough sense to abandon that brush and pick up the Rooney Finest badger and have another go at it. I got the water right and loaded the Rooney on the soap for about 20 seconds, then back to the face where I got the great Santa Claus beard/lather. This was the second time in a row that the boar brush just didn't work for me. I've given up on the boar brushes for the foreseeable future (sorry Zack), and will continue to use one of several badger and synthetic brushes with the soap, just to get a feel for which brushes work best for me with a hard puck of soap until this particular puck is completely used up in a few weeks from now.

I didn't feel comfortable abandoning my boar brush (Semogue 2000) after yesterday's dismal experience. I tried it again today just to make sure. I added a tablespoon or so tap water to the soap in the bowl and let it sit for a few moments. The boar brush was dry. I loaded the brush vigorously on the soap for a full 20 seconds, then built the lather on the face. The lather was much better. Thick and rich, but not as plentiful as generated by the synthetic brush or the badger. I think I got the lather a tiny bit too dry, even though I did add tap water directly on the brush twice during the lather building process. Even though I got better lather today than yesterday from the boar, it is still not what I expect. Onward and upward.

You mean completely, as in dry-as-a-bone dry? If that's the case, what would be the advantage in that?

Earlier, I used the boar brush wet, and for reasons beyond my comprehension, the lather was weak as usually occurs when I have too much water. I don't know why, but when I'm using soaps, I get my best results when I run hot tap water on the soap in what looks (to me) like an appropriate volume of water and then load the completely dry brush (synthetic, boar, or badger) on the soap for around 20 seconds maximum before going to the face to build the lather. Then, if necessary I dribble a bit of tap water (if any) onto the brush as needed. One of those individually unique situations.

Interesting. Maybe it's the water quality/ hardness. In my case, completely dry brushes yield complety awful results. A short soak yields better results. A longer soak of about 5 minutes (Simson Duke in best badger) thoroughly shaken out does best of all.

Since I posted back in the summer I have reduced my loading time to just a few seconds, not 20. The water that sits on the soap is of sufficient volume to help the brush raise a bunch of soapsuds that will turn into a nice lather as I work the brush on my face. I should point out the fact that I don't use my boar brushes any more. I just don't get good results from them, certainly not up to the quality of lather I get from synthetics and badger.